BBC awards show remembers Gaelic Football legend Paidi O Se

Kerry legend Paidi O Se was remembered at one of the world’s top sports award shows on Sunday night.

The eight time All-Ireland winner was included in a list of sporting greats who have passed away in 2012 at the BBC sports personality of the year awards.

Millions of viewers in Britain and Ireland saw an image of O Se holding the Sam Maguire trophy fill their screens during the show.

The move by the BBC has been welcomed by GAA figures at home as they prepare for his funeral on Tuesday.

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Well known RTE broadcaster Des Cahill described the move as ‘a fantastic gesture’ by the BBC.
O Se will be waked in his family home in Ventry on Monday by his wife Maire, daughters Neasa and Siun, son Padraig Og and his brother Tomas ahead of Tuesday’s funeral.

Friends and foes from the football field have continued to pay their own tributes to the Kerry legend.
Cork rival Dinny Allen, infamously involved in a 1975 skirmish with O Se, remembered his former opponent.

Allen said: “Páidí wasn’t a dirty player at all. You wouldn’t have to be looking for him out of the corner of your eye because you either got it up front or there was nothing.

“I know when people look at things like that 1975 clip they wonder would they actually hate each other and that sort of thing. We had patched up within a fortnight. It was on ‘Up for the Match’ a few years ago, myself and Páidí were on and they showed it in front of us.

“He had caught me on the head all right but I was trying to get away without my name being taken. He took both names but I’d say Páidí thought he was gone straight away when it happened.

“He tells a great story about that skirmish which I can’t recall but who was I to spoil a great story from him!

“I got a point way over on the wing early on by the dressing-room and reputedly (according to Páidí) said to him, ‘you’ll be going off now soon, Páidí’.

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“He claims to have replied, ‘well if I’m going off you’ll be coming off with me’. I think that it was his imagination but the way he told it, the story always sounded good.”

Former Dublin goalkeeper Paddy Cullen said: “He was a one-off. If you take him as an overall package he was probably the GAA’s biggest diamond because he was a great promotional guy for the game.

“Everywhere he appeared he epitomised the game. He was a Gaeilgeoir, almost a historian, nearly a politician. He knocked on every door. I don’t think he could have achieved much more in his life.

“He was a wonderful character, funny, jovial, always out for the craic. When he came into a room, he illuminated it straight away. It’s hard to believe that there are three of them gone now, Páidí, Tim Kennelly and John Egan.”

The GAA’s Director General Páraic Duffy will lead the association’s delegation at the funeral.
Duffy said: “I know terms like ‘larger than life’ are often overused, but it’s very hard to think of a better description of Páidí.

“He was a wonderful player, first and foremost, but also had incredible passion for football, and brightened up every room he came in to, and every social occasion.”